[Libguestfs] [PATCH] New tool: virt-format

[Török Edwin]

On 01/17/2012 07:48 PM, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> Rather than me explaining over again what it does, I've included the
> man page below.
>
> Rich.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> virt-format(1)              Virtualization Support              virt-format(1)
>
>
>
> NAME
>         virt-format - Erase and make a blank disk
>
> SYNOPSIS
>          virt-format [--options] -a disk.img [-a disk.img ...]
>
> DESCRIPTION
>         Virt-format takes an existing disk file (or it can be a host partition,
>         LV etc), erases all data on it, and formats it as a blank disk.  It can
>         optionally create partition tables, empty filesystems, logical volumes
>         and more.
>
>         To create a disk containing data, you may be better to use
>         virt-make-fs(1).  If you are creating a blank disk to use in
>         guestfish(1), you should instead use the guestfish -N option.
>
>         Normal usage would be something like this:
>
>          virt-format -a disk.qcow
>
>         or this:
>
>          virt-format -a /dev/VG/LV
>
>         "disk.qcow" or "/dev/VG/LV" must exist already.  Any data on these
>         disks will be erased by these commands.  These commands will create a
>         single empty MBR partition covering the whole disk, with no filesystem
>         inside it.

Some thoughts:
  - does it autodetect when disk is too large for MBR and GPT would be needed?
  - does it align partitions to SSD erase block size? (LVM is particularly tricky to get right manually)
  - can I specify a backing-file for qemu disks? (qcow, and qed I think)
  - can --wipe use TRIM on SSDs instead of writing zeroes?
  - can I setup LVM striping and mirror with it?

If the answer is yes to all these then this tool could even be used as a general purpose format tool, not just for virt environments :)

Best regards,
--Edwin